Costa Mesa man and his family remain positive while waiting for a heart transplant at UCLA Medical Center's intensive care unit, where he's been for a couple of months.

Ezekiel "Zeke" Kendall is, by most measures, a nice guy. He's friendly, upbeat and enjoys spending time with his family.

Still, you wouldn't be wrong if you called him heartless.

The Costa Mesa 19-year-old — who's awaiting the first of what could be multiple heart transplants throughout his life — had his own failing ticker removed and replaced with a SynCardia artificial device Dec. 5.

"It's weird to think, man, I have a completely synthetic metal and plastic device in my body," he said. "It's just a phenomenal, phenomenal device."

In early November, Kendall was diagnosed with congestive heart failure after he had begun to feel "sick and out of it."

His heart developed "a huge clot in one chamber, then another," said his dad, Dusty Kendall. "His heart was swelled way beyond capacity."